Sport
-
Chess
Sasikiran regains crown; Ramesh makes Indian team
By Rakesh Rao
GM P. Hari Krishna (left) congratulates GM K. Sasikiran after the latter regained the title in BPCL National `A' chess championship at Nagpur on Monday. Hari Krishna finished second. - Photo: R.V. Moorthy
NAGPUR, FEB. 4. As anticipated, K. Sasikiran came up with a strong finish to emphatically regain the honours in the BPCL National `A' chess championship on Monday.
After winning the 1999 edition of the championship at the Vidarbha Bridge Association Hall here, the 21-year-old Grandmaster signed off his campaign at the same venue with a timely victory over Varugeese Koshy in the 19th and final round on Monday. The result gave Sasikiran a staggering tally of 14.5 points and placed him half-a-point clear of P. Hari Krishna. Sasikiran, runner-up in 2000 and 2001, collected Rs. 35,000 for winning the strongest National championship in its 39- year history.
This was also the first time that Sasikiran had won three successive tournaments in as many months. He won the AICF Golden Jubilee title at Kozhikode in December and jointly claimed the Hastings Premier championship in January.
``It feels great to win especially after finishing a clear first,'' said Sasikiran. He termed his fighting 10th-round victory over Abhijit Kunte as the `turning point' in the title- hunt. ``The defeat to Pravin Thipsay (in the seventh round) was a shock and it took its toll on my confidence. It took me some time to recover from it,'' was Sasikiran's candid admission after completing the task on hand. Hari, who had matched Sasikiran's efforts at Hastings, came up with his best showing in three appearances in the championship to receive Rs. 27,000. However, in the final round, Hari was lucky to win over Vishal Sareen. Down two pawns, Hari benefitted from Sareen's oversight and trapped his rook.
``After playing so poorly against R.B. Ramesh (on Sunday), I don't think I deserved to win,'' was how the fast- maturing 15-year-old Hari put it. ``I think, Sasikiran played very well to win,'' he acknowledged.
Surya Sekhar Ganguly (13), former champions Dibyendu Barua (12.5) and Abhijit Kunte (11) drew their respective matches to follow the top two seeds, in that order. R.B. Ramesh (10.5) defeated B. T. Muralikrishnan to complete the `elite-six' bracket. Interestingly, the top six seeds eventually occupied the first six places. Should Viswananthan Anand remain reluctant to represent India in the Olympiad later this year, in Bled (Slovenia), Ramesh will be part of the six-member National team.
On the final day, the battle for the sixth place held everyone's attention. Much before Ramesh made it past Muralikrishnan, Sriram Jha went out of contention following an agreed-draw with P. Konguvel. In the key-match involving aspirants, Pravin Thipsay showed a lot of character in taming V. Saravanan. The result eventually helped Thipsay finish seventh - one better than Saravanan.
Though Thipsay, Saravanan and Jha finished with an identical tally, the tie-break score placed them in that order. Still, Saravanan and Jha can draw consolation from the fact that they retained their places in the next edition of the championship.
The results (final round): K. Sasikiran bt Varugeese Koshy; S. Vijayalakshmi bt P. Magesh Chandran; Dibyendu Barua drew with N. Sudhakar Babu; Chandrashekhar Gokhale drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly; D. V. Prasad bt Swati Ghate; R. B. Ramesh bt B. T. Muralikrishnan; Vishal Sareen lost to P. Hari Krishna; Pravin Thipsay bt V. Saravanan; P. Konguvel drew with Sriram Jha; Neeraj Kumar Mishra drew with Abhijit Kunte.
The standings (with points, along with tie-break scores, wherever necessary): 1. K. Sasikiran-14.5 points, 2. P. Hari Krishna-14, 3. Surya Sekhar Ganguly-13, 4. Dibyendu Barua- 12.5, 5. Abhijit Kunte-11, 6. R. B. Ramesh-10.5, 7, Pravin Thipsay-10 (4/1), 8. V. Saravanan-10 (4/0.5), 9. Sriram Jha-10 (2.5), 10. N. Sudhakar Babu-9.5, 11. Chandrashekhar Gokhale-9, 12, D. V. Prasad-8.5 (4), 13. P. Magesh Chandran-8.5 (3), 14. Vishal Sareen-8.5 (2.5), 15. S. Vijayalakshmi-8, 16. P. Konguvel- 7.5, 17. Swati Ghate-7 (3), 18. Varugeese Koshy-7 (2.5), 19. Neeraj Kumar Mishra-6 and 20. B.T. Muralakrishnan-4.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sport
|
